Forecast

Congressional delegation pushes Trump to provide storm recovery grant

Julia Perkins| on
July 10, 2018

A tree fellinto a garden area on the Murphy prperty on Old Hemlock Road in Brookfield during last month's macroburst. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, Brookfield officials and U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty toured areas of Brookfield Monday, June 11, 2018, most heavily damaged. less

A tree fellinto a garden area on the Murphy prperty on Old Hemlock Road in Brookfield during last month's macroburst. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, Brookfield officials and U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty ... more

A tree fellinto a garden area on the Murphy prperty on Old Hemlock Road in Brookfield during last month's macroburst. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, Brookfield officials and U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty toured areas of Brookfield Monday, June 11, 2018, most heavily damaged. less

A tree fellinto a garden area on the Murphy prperty on Old Hemlock Road in Brookfield during last month's macroburst. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, Brookfield officials and U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty ... more

The state’s congressional delegation is urging President Donald Trump to declare May’s massive storm a disaster, which would pave the way for several local towns to earn a federal grant.

U.S. Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy and U.S. Reps. John Larson, Joe Courtney, Rosa DeLauro, Jim Himes and Elizabeth Esty sent a letter to Trump on Tuesday emphasizing the damage the storm caused.

“The storms required our state and many of our municipalities to exhaust scarce resources responding to emergencies, clearing debris, and providing accommodations and other necessities for displaced persons,” the delegation said in the letter. “These efforts strained budgets and forced our state and local communities to face large, unanticipated costs.”

The storm knocked out power to tens of thousands of homes across the state, injured several people and killed two people in Danbury.

Several towns, including Brookfield, Ridgefield, New Milford, New Fairfield and Danbury, have requested money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help cover the cost of storm damage. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy passed along these requests to the president on Monday.

Trump must declare the storm a disaster before this funding can be granted.